Two from Johns Hopkins named to National Academy of Engineering

Johns Hopkins chemical and biomolecular engineer Yannis Kevrekidis and computer scientist Russell Taylor have been named to the National Academy of Engineering, a career distinction that recognizes the most accomplished engineers in the world. They are among 87 new members and 18 international members selected for the honor this year.

Established in 1964, the NAE is made up of more than 2,000 peer-elected members and international members who advise the U.S. government on matters regarding engineering and technology.

"Both Yannis and Russ, throughout their careers, have continued to redefined their areas of research," says Ed Schlesinger, dean of the Whiting School of Engineering, where both scientists hold appointments. "This is wonderful and well-deserved recognition and I couldn't be more thrilled for them."

Kevrekidis, who joined Johns Hopkins as a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in 2017, is an expert in complex systems modeling and researches the dynamic behavior of physical, chemical, and biological processes. He pioneered equation-free computation, which draws from data mining and machine learning techniques to apply observations made in small space-time scales to systems on larger scales. He holds appointments in the Whiting School's departments of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Applied Mathematics and Statistics, and in the Department of Urology at the School of Medicine.

"I am happy that this happened, and that it happened while at Hopkins, where I joined just three years ago," Kevrekidis said. "I only wish that my father, whom I very recently lost, was still around; it would have given him real joy."

Kevrekidis is a member of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences and has been a Packard Fellow, an NSF Presidential Young Investigator, and a Guggenheim Fellow, among other honors. He has been the Gutzwiller Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems in Dresden and a Rothschild Distinguished Visitor at the Newton Institute at Cambridge University.

Taylor is the director of the Laboratory for Computational Sensing and Robotics and of the Engineering Research Center for Computer-Integrated Surgical Systems and Technology. In addition to appointments in the Whiting School's departments of Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering, he holds secondary appointments in the School of Medicine departments of Radiology and Surgery.

An expert in robotics, medical imaging and modeling, and human-machine cooperative systems, Taylor led the early development of medical robotics technology and computer-integrated surgical systems. His research has spanned all aspects of medical robotic systems, including work on algorithms, sensors and technology, imaging and modeling, human-machine interfaces, and applications such as surgical assistant systems for minimally invasive surgery and microsurgery. He is a fellow of the IEEE and the National Academy of Inventors, among other career honors.

"This is an honor for which I am deeply appreciative," Taylor says. "At the same time, I am also very much aware of the debt that I owe to the many collaborators with whom I have been lucky enough to work over the years."

Taylor, Kevrekidis, and the other individuals selected for membership this year will be formally inducted during a ceremony at the NAE annual meeting on Oct. 4 in Washington, D.C.